• Syrian security forces are moving out of Latakia after four days of military operations in the city, the Syrian state news agency, Sana, reported. Activists say 40 people have been killed in the last four days as security forces shelled civilian areas, including the al-Ramel Palestinian refugee camp. The military also claimed on Tuesday to have moved out of Deir Ezzor, but al-Jazeera is reporting that residents said two people have been killed overnight in the eastern city. Sana reported:

The interior ministry on Tuesday announced that the law-Enforcement forces, backed by an army unit completed their mission at al-Ramel al-Janoubi in Lattakia, putting an end to the armed terrorist groups who terrified the safe citizens by their criminal acts.

Brigadier General Mohammad Hassan al-Ali said the Army unit began moving out of al-Ramel al-Janoubi after completing its mission, adding "the neighborhood is recovering and the citizens are practising their normal life that was spoiled by the acts of the terrorist groups".

• A Syrian rights group says government troops have detained dozens of people overnight after cutting electricity in a Damascus neighbourhood. The group says the raids took place in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Rukneddine early on Wednesday. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also says a bullet killed a man in the north-western Idlib province as he stood on his balcony.

• The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the White House is pushing for another round of sanctions against Assad and key regime figures. She urged regional critics of the Syrian regime to step up their rhetoric, claiming that the US did not have a lot at stake in Syria. Her comments were interpreted as an attempt to distance the US from its perceived leading role as an international critic, which Damascus has used to support its claim that the instability is the result of a western-led conspiracy. Clinton said the US was using "smart power" by refusing to act alone or with brute force to stop autocratic repression in the two countries.

She said:

The United States stands for our values, our interests and our security, but we have a very clear view that others need to be taking the same steps to enforce a universal set of values and interests. We are by all measurements the strongest leader in the world and we are leading, but part of leading is making sure that you get other people on the field. And that's what I think we are doing.

• The national transitional council (NTC) has denied it is taking part in peace talks in Tunisia, designed to bring an end to the civil war. Abdel-Elah al-Khatib, Jordan's former foreign minister, arrived in Tunis on Monday for separate meetings with representatives of the Gaddafi regime and the rebels, a Tunisian security official said. The official said the discussions late Monday centered on a "peaceful transition" in Libya. But a rebel spokesman in France denied that members of the NTC participated in the Djerba meeting. Mansour Saif al-Nasr told RFI radio on Tuesday that "Libyan political personalities" were involved, but not NTC representatives.

During a telephone call late Monday, Chavez and Ahmadinejad "discussed the situation created by the imperialist aggression against Libya and Syria, and agreed to follow up on this issue and increase their efforts to achieve peace," the Venezuelan foreign ministry said.

Photograph: Tom Jenkins

10.16am: A football match between Egypt and Brazil, scheduled for September 6 in Cairo has been cancelled because of security concerns, goal.com reports. The official statement from the Brazilian football federation read:

The friendly was cancelled at the request of the Egyptian federation due to security worries.

Despite the toppling of the Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak, in February, protests have continued with many activists accusing the military leaders of not doing enough to effect change. Protests have on occasion been attacked by counter-demonstrators and/or military police.

A Western diplomat based in Benghazi described the prospect of Tripoli falling to the rebels as the "worst-case scenario" in the present climate.

Signalling the extent of Nato's concerns amid speculation that the endgame is in sight, officials from the alliance told The Times that victory against the regime would result in what is now being referred to as "catastrophic success".

A senior alliance diplomat told The Times: "This is the phrase now being generally used in Nato, that we are facing a catastrophic success in Libya. And even if it's not catastrophic it will be chaotic success because the opposition is not ready to govern and there will be a vacuum if Gaddafi goes.

The article says "deep and deadly divisions" appeared within the rebel National Transitional Council last month with the murder of the rebel army chief, General Abdel Fatah Younis, by a rogue faction. His unsolved killing led to the cabinet being dissolved and no new cabinet has yet been formed. The Times writes:

"With the killing of Younis and the possible fall of Tripoli now, the planning has gone with the wind," said the Western diplomat, based in Benghazi. "There's no NTC structure at all, the executive committee is gone, nothing has taken its place. I think it'd be the worst case scenario if Tripoli falls right now, there'd be nobody to take charge."

He warned that the West had seriously underestimated the growing influence of Islamists and the "significant" role played by Libya's tribes, instead focusing on Western-educated liberals who "said the right things".

The paradoxical character of Western intervention in Libya has been underlined by various observers who saw its rationale as centered around securing control over post-Gaddafi Libya. Many sympathizers of the Libyan insurrection—some of them, myself included, expressing understanding for the fact that Benghazi asked "the devil" for help against a massacre foretold—warned the rebels from day one against portraying this devil as an angel on that occasion, and against fostering illusions about the Western powers' real motives. Such early suspicions were soon confirmed by the evolution of the situation in Libya, to the point that there is now widespread conviction in Arab anti-Western circles that Nato is deliberately prolonging the war and hence the Gaddafi regime's existence ...

America and Nato's position is flagrant in conspiring against the people's revolution in Libya and maintaining Gaddafi's forces in activity until they manage to control the TNC and maybe also some field leaders. They would only then topple Gaddafi, as they are conspiring against the people, the revolution and Libya's future.

Libyan rebels celebrate their advances in the town of Zawiya, just 30 miles from Tripoli. Photograph: Giulio Petrocco/AP

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11.15am:Brian Whitaker, one of the Guardian's Middle East experts, met the veteran Syrian dissident, Haitham Maleh, who is visiting London, on Tuesday. Brian writes:

He suggested that the Assad regime will fall "in a short time – maybe some weeks". This surprised me a bit, but he pointed to economic problems, exhaustion of the security forces and determination of the protesters as contributing factors.

He also suggested the regime cannot count on Alawite support. "Most of the Alawis do not have anything from the regime - they are still poor," he said.

I asked him how the Assad regime might come to an end, and he outlined three possible scenarios:

1. A revolt from the "normal" part of the army. "We have now two kinds of military in Syria. The first kind, those people under Maher al-Assad - 60,000 - all of them protect this regime as a family. The rest of the army, most of them, they serve under law so they do not want to attack their family. Those are the normal army. From this side, we see some of those army will take steps against this regime. If they do it, after that a lot of things will be changed. The Assad family will not be in Syria and we will start to change the country for the future.

2. "Another scenario is pressure from outside - the international community. Maybe the security council will take a step to send the file of Syria to the international criminal court." Under international pressure, "maybe Assad will give power to Farouk al-Sharaa who is vice-president and at that time it's open to build a new government, a new council of government from non-party persons for change for the future. That's another strategy.

3. Civil war. "This is very dangerous ... In Syria most of the people now have weapons but until now nobody uses anything. But if the situation changed and the regime pushed the people to use weapons the situation will be changed. We don't need it."

Russia this month backed a UN security council statement condemning "the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities", although it refused to support firmer sanctions.

Syria is taking its war against President Bashar al-Assad's political opponents global, using diplomats in Washington, London and elsewhere to track and intimidate expatriates who speak out against the Damascus regime, according to Syrian dissidents and U.S. officials.

Syrian embassy staffers are tracking and photographing antiregime protesters and sending reports back home, Syrian activists and U.S. officials say. Syrian diplomats, including the ambassador to the US, have fanned out to Arab diaspora communities to brand dissidents "traitors" and warn them against conspiring with "Zionists."

A half-dozen Syrian-Americans interviewed by The Wall Street Journal in recent weeks say that as a result of their activities in the U.S., family members have been interrogated, threatened or arrested in Syria. The Obama administration says it has "credible" evidence that the Assad regime is targeting relatives of Syrian-Americans who have participated in peaceful US protests.

In an interview Tuesday, Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador, dismissed the allegations by Syrian dissidents and U.S. officials as "slander and sheer lies".

Medical workers at a hospital told Reuters three people had been killed and 35 injured on Tuesday, most of them civilians.

Meanwhile, at a news conference broadcast by Libyan state television, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim dismissed reports that Gaddafi's forces were on the run but acknowledged fighting in several locations the rebels say they have already captured. He said:

Be aware of the media campaign which is trying to make the rebels bigger than they are. Some foreign politicians have said this regime's days are finished and it has weeks left. They have been saying this for six months and we are still here.

12.29pm: Not so quiet in Zawiya now it seems. Both Reuters and the Associated Press are reporting fighting between Libyan rebels and Gaddafi forces for the oil refinery, which is believed to under the control of Gaddafi's troops.

This Twitpic map purports to show frontline positions, "possible and known", in Zawiya.

From Reuters:

"There are some snipers inside the refinery facility. We control the gates of the refinery. We will be launching an operation to try to take control of it shortly," said rebel fighter Abdulkarim Kashaba.Heavy shooting could be heard near the refinery and Gaddafi's green flags could be seen still flying from a building and an electrical pylon. The rest of the city now flies the red, black and green flag used by the rebels.

Under a bridge, rebels loaded large-calibre ammunition into a car and headed towards the refinery. Other rebels could be seen speeding in that direction.Elsewhere in Zawiya appeared quiet on Wednesday and under rebel control. The city was largely deserted and shops were boarded up, with clusters of rebel fighters in the streets.

From AP:

Rebel fighter Ramadan Keshada said Wednesday that his forces control parts of the refinery complex in the city's north on the Mediterranean coast, while some Gadhafi forces and civilian workers remain inside.

12.49pm:This video, uploaded onto YouTube today, purports to show Syrian soldiers celebrating in Latakia. The state news agency reports that the soldiers have "completed their mission" (see 9.39am). But others say that troops remain in the coastal city, according to al-Jazeera and the LA Times.

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12.57pm: The global campaign group, Avaaz, says its citizen journalists have reported that Syrian security forces and the military have surrounded the Aljisr Alkabeer mosque in the Damascus suburb of Zabadani:

Troops are preventing worshipers from accessing the mosque. They have also surrounded and closed off several neighbourhoods in the town, and have been indiscriminately arresting people found in shops and on the street, in a bid to prevent any potential for the people to protest. Zabadani has been the scene of growing nightly demonstrations since the start of Ramadan.

Last night shooting from heavy machine guns and armored vehicles was heard across the town. Security forces and the army roamed the streets, cheering for Bashar and provoking civilians. They also left inflammatory statements in support of Bashar on the walls of the town.

During the past 48 hours, regime forces have stepped up their presence in the area, with a considerable number of army and security vehicles seen entering the region and checkpoints set up across the town.

1.19pm: The Associated Press is reporting that Syrian troops arrested people overnight in Latakia, despite the Syrian state news agency's claims the troops are leaving the north-western port city. AP says a man was killed there late yesterday and a woman died of her wounds there today two days after being injured.

AP says that last night hundreds of security agents conducted house-to-house raids in the al-Ramel neighbourhood, home to a crowded Palestinian refugee camp and many poor Syrians. Amateur videos posted online, which could not be verified, showed Syrian soldiers in people carriers and pick-up trucks as they drove in a street apparently in Latakia. The troops were greeted in al-Ramel by supporters of Bashar al-Assad chanting: "Our souls and our blood we sacrifice for you, Bashar." Another video showed a military helicopter flying over the coast.

Most journalists are banned from Syria, making verification of reports very difficult.

Syria

• Syrian troops reportedly arrested people overnight in Latakia, despite the Syrian state news agency's claims the troops are leaving the north-western port city. AP says a man was killed there late yesterday and a woman died of her wounds there today two days after being injured (see 1.19pm). There are reports that security forces have surrounded the Aljisr Alkabeer mosque in the Damascus suburb of Zabadani, which has been the scene of nightly demonstrations since the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at the beginning of August (see 12.57pm). Arrests and overnight shooting were also reported. There are have also been reports of shelling of Houla, also spelled al-Hulla, near Homs in the centre of the country (see 9.52am).

• Veteran Syrian dissident Haitham Maleh predicted the Assad regime would fall in a matter of weeks, citing economic problems, exhaustion of the security forces and determination of the protesters as contributing factors (see 11.15am).

Libya

• Fighting between pro- anti-Gaddafi forces over an oil refinery has been reported in Zawiya, 30 miles (50km) west of Tripoli, which rebels moved into this week (see 12.29pm).

• Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim dismissed reports that the regime was on its last legs (see 12.29pm). There were reports of western concerns about the suitability of the rebels to take over government in Libya if they do overthrow Muammar Gaddafi (see 10.49am).

2.29pm: The opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) in Libya says it is intending to use courts in countries around the world to block attempts by the Gaddafi regime to prevent the NTC from gaining access to Libyan embassies and assets currently frozen by the United Nations.

It has already appointed lawyers Hogan Lovells in the UK, it said in a statement.

An NTC executive committee spokeswoman said:

Libyan embassies belong to the Libyan people and the NTC has full entitlement and authority to assume those embassies and conduct diplomatic functions in its capacity as sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people."

We are seeking to build a free and democratic society based upon the principles of political democracy and the rule of law. As such we use these principles in practice to help us secure the property that belongs to the Libyan people and will oppose attempts to prevent us from doing so. We have the resources and will to do this, and will take all steps that are required to protect the interests of the Libyan people.

Contrary to news reports, the NTC did not "sack" the government nor did the cabinet submit its resignation. An effort to reorganise the cabinet is well under way, and a war cabinet will emerge with the core objective and focus of achieving the final victory.

An official military source stated that army units began leaving the city of Deir Ezzor and returning to their barracks after completing their mission of ridding the city of the armed terrorist groups that terrorised citizens and vandalised public and private property.

Life is returning to normal to the city streets as local authorities are working to restore and repair establishments and directorates that were vandalised by the terrorist groups.

A media delegation containing 70 journalists, reporters and photographers from 43 Arab and foreign agencies on Tuesday witnessed the reality of the situation in the city of Deir Ezzor, photographing the army as it leaves the city ...

The journalists toured the city and met citizens, listening to their testimonies about the unfortunate events that took place recently and the criminal acts committed by armed terrorist groups which cut off roads, disrupted life, murdered innocent, destroyed public and private property, vandalised facilities and terrorised locals.

But al-Jazeera is reporting that the military has not withdrawn from Deir Ezzor and that two people were killed in overnight raids.

Another video purports to show a funeral procession for a victim of the security services in Deir Ezzor.

_

3.08pm:Libyan rebels have told Reuters that encircled Gaddafi troops have abandoned two towns further west from Zawiya. By telephone from Zintan, a rebel headquarters in the Western Mountains, Abdulrahman, who seems to use only one name, said:

Gaddafi's forces this morning withdrew from the towns of Tiji and Badr because they felt surrounded from all sides. The revolutionaries have now entered Tiji and Badr. The [Gaddafi] brigades retreated to Zuwarah and Jameel, near the Tunisian border. I think they will surrender soon because roads to Tripoli are closed.

The account could not be independently confirmed. Gaddafi's government has played down the rebel advances of the past week.

3.15pm:Yemen's main opposition coalition says a national council will be established to unite various groups against the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Bloomberg reports:

The council will be elected by 1,000 representatives from all opposition blocs, Mohammed Basindwah, the president of the national dialogue committee at the Joint Meeting Parties, told reporters today in Sana'a.

"Our concern about the country has pushed us to establish the council," Basindwah said "It is meant to secure the country in case the regime starts a war."

3.31pm: The foreign ministers of Turkey and Jordan have renewed their call on the Syrian government to immediately end its crackdown against protesters, the Associated Press reports.

In a joint news conference held on the sidelines of an Islamic nations' meeting to discuss famine in Somalia, the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has been increasingly critical of the Syrian regime, said:

The bloodshed must stop, all soldiers must be withdrawn from the cities and life in these cities must return to normal.

The Jordanian foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, said:

It's important to stop this raging violence and implement reforms. We reject the continuation of the killing.

Turkey was increasing its consultations with countries in the region to try to find a "common stance" on Syria, Davutoglu said.

Asked about a news report that Turkey might create a buffer zone along its border with Syria, Davutoglu said there was currently no such development. He said:

We're talking about a border that is 900km [560 miles] long. We cannot talk about such a development right now.

3.34pm: Two Saudi rights activists have launched a campaign calling on the government to expel the Syrian ambassador to the kingdom, AP reports.

In a statement posted online today, Ali Mahdi al-Hattab and Raif Mohammed Badawi appeal to their fellow Saudis to join the campaign.

The activists say the Saudi people have been following with great concern the Syrian government's escalating crackdown on protesters, and call on the Saudi government to "expel the ambassador of this savage [Syrian] regime immediately".

3.39pm: The head of Bahrain's main Shia Muslim opposition party wants a referendum on whether the nation's government should be elected or remain appointed by its leaders, the Associated Press reports.

The news agency reports that it is "highly unlikely" that the Bahrain's Sunni monarchy, which has been cracking down on Shia-led protests since they began in February, would accede to Ali Salman's demands. Salman's al-Wefaq party is boycotting next month's parliamentary elections.

4.51pm: Campaigning group Avaaz writes with reports from Syria. The group says at least four Palestinian refugees, including a 32-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl, were killed today in the Raml refugee camp in Latakia. Avaaz says another woman died to a previous infection, "which was treatable but security forces fefused to allow her to go to hospital". A number of homes were burned down in the camp and "heavy gunfire" was reported in the areas of Ein Al-Tamra and Bouston Al-Saidawy.

In Homs, Avaaz reports at least five people killed by security forces. In Idlib, two were killed. In Damascus a demonstration was attacked by security forces and the Shabiha ("ghosts") militia.

Avaaz also reports that "security forces have dug up several bodies of protesters killed in Hama - buried by their families in public gardens due to the military blocking access to graveyards - and along with more than 40 killed on the streets in Latakia, dressed them in Syrian army uniforms to portray them as Syrian troops who had been killed by 'armed terrorists'."

Syria

• At least four Palestinian refugees have been killed in the Raml refugee camp in Latakia today, reports claim, despite the Syrian state news agency claiming Syrian troops are leaving the north-western port city. In Homs, in the centre of the country, there are reports of five people killed, as well as two in Idlib, in the west (see 4.51pm). There are reports that security forces have surrounded the Aljisr Alkabeer mosque in the Damascus suburb of Zabadani, which has been the scene of nightly demonstrations since the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at the beginning of August (see 12.57pm). Arrests and overnight shooting were also reported. There are have also been reports of shelling of Houla, also spelled al-Hulla, near Homs (see 9.52am). The Syrian state news agency also claimed troops were now leaving Deir Ezzor, in the east (see 3.01pm).

• Veteran Syrian dissident Haitham Maleh predicted the Assad regime would fall in a matter of weeks, citing economic problems, exhaustion of the security forces and determination of the protesters as contributing factors (see 11.15am). The foreign ministers of Turkey and Jordan renewed their calls for the Syrian government to end its crackdown on protesters (see 3.31pm).

Libya

• Fighting between pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces over an oil refinery has been reported in Zawiya, 30 miles (50km) west of Tripoli, which rebels moved into this week (see 12.29pm).

• Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim dismissed reports that the regime was on its last legs (see 12.29pm). There were reports of western concerns about the suitability of the rebels to take over government in Libya if they do overthrow Muammar Gaddafi (see 10.49am). The rebel leadership, the National Transitional Council, issued a statement denying reports from earlier this month that chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil had sacked his whole cabinet. It was being "reorganised", they said (see 2.29pm).

Bahrain

The head of Bahrain's main Shia Muslim opposition party wants a referendum on whether the nation's government should be elected or remain appointed by its leaders (see 3.39pm).

Yemen

Yemen's main opposition coalition says a national council will be established to unite various groups against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh (see 3.15pm).